Corsair HX Series 850W Platinum Power Supply Review

Introduction and Features

Introduction

(Courtesy of Corsair)

Corsair recently updated their HX Series power supplies which now include four models: the HX750, HX850, HX1000 and HX1200. The HX Series is targeted towards advanced users for use in gaming rigs, overclocking systems, and any PC that demands rock-solid stability. Corsair states the HX Series power supplies provide extremely tight voltage regulation, quiet operation, Platinum-level efficiency and come with a fully modular cable set. In addition, the HX Series power supplies are built with all Japanese 105°C capacitors and come backed by a 10-year warranty.

Note: Corsair offers essentially the same four models in their HXi Series, which also includes the Corsair Link digital interface for software based monitoring and control.

We will be taking a detailed look at the new HX Series 850W power supply in this review.

While the number of spectacular PSU failures has markedly decreased, reviews such as this excellent example are incredibly important when making purchasing decisions. Have a little respect for the work that Lee has put into this review.

Maybe reviewers could spice up the format by testing PSUs to the point of failure. I would like to see what it takes to physically destroy these things. Can one take a 850W PSU to 1000W? What happens if I short an active power cable? What happens to thermals without the fan active? Can I add a waterblock to it in a custom cooling loop? There are so many interesting questions.

Virtually all enthusiast grade PSUs have built in safety circuits that are designed to protect the PSU from catastrophic failure. I have only had one PSU actually explode (fireball, sparks and smoke) during testing over the last fifteen years. Over Current protection or Over Power protection should shut the PSU down if too heavy a load is applied to a particular rail or the total output power is exceeded. Short circuit protection should shut it down if a short occurs on one of the outputs. And if the cooling fan fails, Over Temperature protection should shut the PSU down before it self destructs. Boring but safe!

And water-cooling a PSU is possible (although maybe not practical). I have done this in the past by attaching several custom made water blocks to the PSU's existing aluminum heat sinks. I chose a PSU that was designed to operate fanless, removed the cover and attached three custom water blocks. Use your imagination... :)

Maybe I missed it but I read through the review and didn't see any info about what the 12v real switch actually does other then switching between single rail and multi rail mode.

Does this have any impact at all on the operation? Is effeciency affected? What kind of scenarios exist in which that feature is even useful? I can't really think of one, although I'm not a die-hard PSU junkie.